Explaining the entirety of Alien Stage — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:08[Music]
2. 0:08If you can imagine this, you're in  a futuristic world where aliens have
3. 0:14come to Earth and taken it over, and now they're  keeping humans captive. For their entertainment,
4. 0:19aliens are making you and your friends compete  in their version of The Voice. While you're being
5. 0:24forced to sing against your will, you're  being watched in a giant stadium or stage,
6. 0:28which gives the series's title its  meaning. The stakes of the show being
7. 0:32that if you happen to lose against your  opponent, even just by one or two points,
8. 0:36then you're sentenced to death on the spot. Rounds  exist, and if you're lucky enough to win yours,
9. 0:42then you go up against whoever won the  last, like boxing or fighting brackets.
10. 0:47You grew up and lived in constant fear for not  only yourself but others around you because in
11. 0:52the blink of an eye, anything and everything that  you love can be taken away from you with no mercy.
12. 1:00Alien Stage, an animated series on YouTube led by  Vivinos in collaboration with co-director QMG and
13. 1:07produced by studio Lego, is exactly that and in  the last few months has taken over a good chunk
14. 1:12of the internet, especially queer people who love  to read about queer yearning. And around April of
15. 1:16last year, my best friend recommended the series  to me when the last piece of Alien Stage media
16. 1:21that had been posted was round six. Since then,  it took me another six months to get into it,
17. 1:26where we both sat down for about an hour, her  pausing every minute or so to explain what on
18. 1:31earth was going on. At the time, I didn't really  enjoy the media to its fullest because I found
19. 1:35it annoying that you needed outside explanations  to be able to fully understand the series. I wish
20. 1:40that I could have had a full guide at the time, a  sort of master doc explaining every single round
21. 1:44in character and relationship so that I could get  into it, you know, not six months later because
22. 1:50honestly, part of this was because I didn't  know where to start with it. This video essay
23. 1:54is meant to be this master doc and I'm sure that  the length of it really reflects that. I'm going
24. 1:59to hope that the chapters worked in this video,  but I'm not trusting YouTube. So, there's going to
25. 2:03be timestamps in the description of this video so  that you can get a better look of what I'm going
26. 2:07to be covering. Since I want this to be available  for not only fans of the series, but people who
27. 2:12haven't heard of it or watched it yet, I'm going  to keep this spoiler-free, as in deaths and
28. 2:16other important plot points won't be hinted at or  anything until right when they're revealed to the
29. 2:21audience. For visuals, I'm going to try my best to  show clips and images from the rounds and videos
30. 2:25as they happen, but because I know I'm going to  eventually run out of footage to show since I talk
31. 2:29about some specific things for a while. Everything  in this series has subtext, guys. You'll you'll
32. 2:34understand once I get into it. I'm going to  be rotating between fan art, fan reactions,
33. 2:38and any other related visuals that I can find. On  a similar note, since I'm going to be covering the
34. 2:43songs in this series, I'll have the one that I'm  currently talking about playing in the background.
35. 2:46Same thing goes with the songs that are being sung  in each round, but once I start running out of
36. 2:50songs, they'll be replaced by songs that generally  remind me of Alien Stage. I also want to note that
37. 2:55there are things here that I don't cover, either  because I thought that they were unimportant,
38. 2:59repetitive, or kind of irrelevant to what I was  talking about, and mostly because I want anyone
39. 3:03who watches this to be able to still have media  to consume after this video. If this is your
40. 3:08introduction to Alien Stage, or if you just want  to go deeper with it, I'm going to be covering
41. 3:12every round plus weige karma. ˈviːɡə. I feel like  I should say it like that. ˈviːɡə. ˈviːɡə plus
42. 3:19ˈviːɡə and Karma. No, that just sounds stupid.  I'm not going to do that. But any videos between
43. 3:25those, like All-in or anything else, I don't  mention that much or at all. For the songs I went
44. 3:29through, I think almost all of them, but things  like covers aren't mentioned. And again, there
45. 3:33might be some that I ended up letting slip through  the cracks. I also went through the comics,
46. 3:37but when I do, I only bring up ones that I thought  were important and had relevant details. Before
47. 3:50[Music] we like get into anything important, I  thought it'd be helpful to do a like character
48. 4:04introduction or like mini analysis so that you're  not confused because I got very easily confused
49. 4:11with all the characters even though there aren't  many. So, I'll just be giving like a basic rundown
50. 4:16description of things that set them apart from  one another so that it's easy to follow along.
51. 4:22Miz is who we'll call our protagonist of the  story with the first present day clip that
52. 4:25we see of her being at the age of 22. Mizi can  easily be recognized by her bright mostly pink
53. 4:30hair and gold eyes. She's described by BB nose.  Bino. Okay. She's described by Vivinos herself as
54. 4:40one of the most outgoing out of all of the main  cast, always carrying a positive attitude. Her
55. 4:45personality comes at a price, however, because  she's almost unable to hide or mask her true
56. 4:49emotions. Something that is crucial to not only  survive, but not go completely insane in a world
57. 4:53like Alien Stage. Fans opinions of Mizi have  started to sway, however, as in a comic made
58. 4:58by Vivinos recently, it was shown that the good  parts of Mizi's personality was mostly all an act.
59. 5:03Sua is introduced in the first round or episode  of Alien Stage alongside Mizi characterized by her
60. 5:07dark blue hair and black eyes. Sua is described  as one of the more subtle characters throughout
61. 5:12the series as she's rarely seen interacting with  anyone else other than Mizi. Sua is seen as very
62. 5:16cold and distant on the outside, only warming  up for Mizi. But despite her hard exterior,
63. 5:21she is actually a very delicate person  and is fairly easy to upset. Like Sua,
64. 5:25Ivan has dark hair. The only difference is his  being black, his eyes matching the theme. Ivan,
65. 5:30also like Sua, is a pretty reserved person,  but in a different way. When he was younger,
66. 5:34and even now, most people would consider Ivan  to be quiet and a bit off-putting due to the
67. 5:38fact that he was raised in poverty and not  knowing social cues very well. As he grew up,
68. 5:42Ivan began to put more effort into being perceived  as normal, doing things like practicing a smile
69. 5:47in the reflection of pawns. With gray hair and  teal eyes, Till is almost the complete opposite
70. 5:51of Ivan visually and personality-wise. In a now  deleted tweet, Vivinos said that she considers
71. 5:56Till to be the most sensitive and timid among all  of the main cast and participants. Despite this,
72. 6:00during Alien Stage, Till had a sort of rebellious  streak for him at least, where he sang over one
73. 6:06of his opponents during a round, something that's  obviously against the rules to win. In my opinion,
74. 6:11Hyuna is one of the most confident out of all  of the main characters. With her brown hair,
75. 6:14we're continuing the streak of dark hair, but her  grays keep some lightness in her character design.
76. 6:19Hyuna is very laid-back, acting playful even in  the most dangerous of situations. Despite this,
77. 6:24however, she's known to have a softer side,  especially when dealing with elements of her past.
78. 6:28Luka shows up pretty early in this series, but we  don't really get to know much of his backstory,
79. 6:32character, or relevance until one of the final  episodes. Luka's silhouette is quite blinding
80. 6:37with most of his character design being some  shades of white or light yellow. While most
81. 6:41of the aliens visibly do their equivalent of  swooning over him, he is probably the most
82. 6:45openly and obviously ruthless person in the main  cast, manipulating Mizi and Till during their
83. 6:50rounds singing together. Despite his [ __ ] of an  exterior, however, throughout Hyuna's memories,
84. 6:55we get to see much more of a softer side of him.  It being implied that offstage he really does
85. 6:59love the ones close to him, but just doesn't  always do a very great job at expressing it.
86. 7:16[Music]
87. 7:17This first round basically gives the viewer all of  the background information and world building that
88. 7:22they would need to continue and understand the  rest of the series. Kind of more like a prologue
89. 7:26than an episode one. Our introduction to  Alien stage opens with a montage of Mizi
90. 7:30and Sua growing up together in the current Alien  world. The extent of their fabricated childhood
91. 7:35is honestly sickening because of the fact that  they grew up in an anakt garden. Flash forward
92. 7:39to them in the present day singing together or  rather against each other in the first round of
93. 7:44Alien Stage. Before we get to see the end of this  round, however, we get a short backstory voice
94. 7:48over from our protagonist Mizi. She explains how  before this all happened, this being alien stage,
95. 7:54everyone on earth believed that everything  and all of their problems that they couldn't
96. 7:57solve themselves could be solved by God and that  their earth was the most important thing in the
97. 8:02world. Beyond the sky was where the gods lived,  they thought. But from the moment that humans
98. 8:06decided to leave earth and explore beyond, i.e.  the universe, space, etc. They forgot entirely
99. 8:11about the concept of God and religion. But Mizi  is only human. Having or believing in a religion
100. 8:17is only human. And since their world's god is no  longer relevant, she believes that Sua is her god,
101. 8:22her universe. That line definitely won't  come back to haunt us later. Flash back
102. 8:27to the present with Mizi and Sua competing against  each other. They seem to be enjoying it. You know,
103. 8:32looking into each other's eyes lovingly and all  until blood splatters against Mizi's face. Mizi
104. 8:37won. Sua lost, which means Sua's dead. Her  collar is placed back on her neck, which
105. 8:45immediately turns bright red. At the end, we see  the competition brackets for this entire series,
106. 8:50inherently finding out that the rounds are only  going to keep going until we reach the best or
107. 8:54final contestant. Till enters the stage for his  round against some rando. He starts pretty calm
108. 9:01and collected despite the very obvious stakes  at hand established in the last round. All up
109. 9:06until he starts thinking of Mizi and then we get  a flashback. We see Till perhaps probably sneaking
110. 9:12out from somewhere to see or rather watch Mizi and  Sua. He can be seen with bruises all over him and
111. 9:17is obviously notably watching them by himself.  One could assume that he was maybe being bullied
112. 9:22in alien stage or in Anakt Garden, but we get  more context in the next flashback sequence.
113. 9:26Till bashing himself against a wall repeatedly. He  was the one who inflicted this pain on himself and
114. 9:31another one of him hiding the flower crown that  he just saw Sua crowning with in one of the last
115. 9:36flashback scenes with Till being very obviously  handcuffed or restrained. a figure who if we do
116. 9:42a bit of digging find out is his owner looking  over him which is obviously what's making him
117. 9:46hide the broken flower crown in the first place.  We get a flash of him covered in blood and more
118. 9:50bruises now with an added mouth restraint like  he was beaten up either by himself or someone
119. 9:55else and then discarded against the wall. Back to  the present right as Acorn tries to get some lines
120. 9:59in before he gets absolutely devoured by Till. He  smashes his guitar and we're now able to see what
121. 10:05it's composed of. Not really that important in my  opinion though the scene itself is pretty cool. It
122. 10:09then flashes to the audience of aliens who don't  seem very happy that Till has just broken what
123. 10:15honestly in the current day world looks like what  would be a very expensive guitar. Oh, and probably
124. 10:19the fact that they didn't even get the chance to  hear the opponent sing. But no, in this economy,
125. 10:24I don't think so. But despite all this, the  aliens decide that it's Till that won. Obviously,
126. 10:29so because the other contestant didn't even get a  chance to say a [ __ ] word. We then get a cut to
127. 10:34Till again against the wall tied up with one of  his restraints stopping him from speaking. Blood
128. 10:39dripping down from his scalp and forehead which  then cuts to Mizi glancing over at him and another
129. 10:44character who remains faceless until we zoom  in on- OH MY GOD, IT'S IVAN. Round three starts
130. 10:48with again backstory of another one of our main  characters. Ivan grew up with the rest of the cast
131. 10:53basically living in a simulation in anakt garden.  We open with Ivan singing in his dedicated round
132. 10:58against another complete stranger. (I promise they  do sing against actual important people. I swear).
133. 11:03Our first flashback with Ivan is with him when  he was far younger. Probably too young to even
134. 11:08have formed a consciousness, which could explain  why he seems so unbothered that he's currently
135. 11:12being dangled off the edge of a cliff by an alien  that's almost 10 times his current height (Bro is
136. 11:17the final boss of nonchalance). Our next scene is  him in this world's version of an adoption center,
137. 11:22but with far more um possible child health  concerns, surrounded by other children who have
138. 11:29yet to be chosen. Finally, he does get chosen and  is taken by a noticeably rich family. Translation:
139. 11:35HIS OWNERS HAVE A LOT OF MONEYYYYYYYYYY- We get  a few seconds of Ivan in anakt garden again,
140. 11:40obviously practicing singing with the other kids  there. But the next scene keeps his dead pan face
141. 11:44flashing to their recess where Ivan almost  voluntarily decides to stay alone watching
142. 11:49the other kids have fun instead of trying to join  in. We get our first major parallel here. (Don't
143. 11:53worry, you'll be seeing a LOT of these in the  series) where for a split second and Sua's flower
144. 11:58crown flashes across the screen, which is then  followed by Till running by Ivan, who he decides
145. 12:02to follow. We return to the present for a second  with Ivan giving his opponents some time to sing
146. 12:07for himself before going back to where exactly  Ivan had followed Till to some sort of small field
147. 12:11that he and Mizi seemed to be trapped in as they  both had gotten cornered by some sort of alien
148. 12:16monster. Mizi was too stunned to speak, but we see  as Till still attempts to try and fight back while
149. 12:20Ivan just stands there and watches. Another flash  back to the present for a second of more of Ivan's
150. 12:25beautiful singing. Then we continue our flashback  where Ivan is observing Till who is locked up in a
151. 12:30straight jacket again very obviously restrained  which he decided to free him from. This is
152. 12:35followed up by them happy together running around  in what seems to be a field with a meteor shower
153. 12:39above them. Back to the present where we took  off from from the last round. Till has finally
154. 12:43woken up just in time to see how Ivan did in his  round. Back to baby Ivan and Till's frolicking in
155. 12:49the field. Suddenly for no reason that Ivan can  think of Till lets go of Ivan's hand. He realizes
156. 12:54quickly that Till turned to return to the literal  prison that they live in because he wants to go
157. 12:59back to Mizi rather than stay with him. The next  time it cuts back to Ivan, he's still singing, but
158. 13:05falling stars can be noticed in the background.  [ __ ] another parallel. Really? And RIGHT after
159. 13:09that, too, Jesus Christ. Finally, we find out  that Ivan has won the round. The last that we
160. 13:13get of this round is a flash of one of our next  main characters, Luka. And I guess round four must
161. 13:19have just featured a bunch of NPCs again because  we've skipped straight to round five. Oh? Oh,
162. 13:24we're actually going to find out what happened in  round five. Okay, sweet. We open the round with a
163. 13:30brief explanation. Luka had sung against another  unnamed NPC in round four and has um obviously
164. 13:36won the round. Then we get a shot of who's  going to be singing in this round. Mizi versus
165. 13:41Luka. NOW WE'RE ACTUALLY GETTING TO RELEVANT  PEOPLE!!! WOOHOO!!!!!. As Luka starts singing,
166. 13:46it is very obvious that he's trying to taunt Mizi  in some way. Even just from his body language,
167. 13:51but also from his lyrics. Mizi then tentatively  starts adding her own lyrics in, her words being
168. 13:56very obviously in response to Luka's. We then  get a beautiful shot of Luka singing with his arm
169. 14:01reached out to signify his passion. The moonlight  creating the perfect atmosphere behind him. And-
170. 14:06OH MY GOD, IT'S ANOTHER PARALLEL, SHOOT ME. Yeah,  it... it honestly just keeps on getting more
171. 14:11painful from here. Luka is not magically turning  into Sua, but rather what we're seeing is all from
172. 14:17Mizi's point of view. The way that Luka is acting,  moving, singing, and even down to his facial
173. 14:21expressions all remind her of Sua because he's  doing it on purpose. He wants to throw her off so
174. 14:27that he has a better chance of winning. Weaken  the competition. Mizi attempts to fight back,
175. 14:30but Luka only restrains her. We start getting  a lot at the same time here with the visuals
176. 14:35moving back and forth between what Mizi is seeing  and the alien crowd who are all very obviously in
177. 14:40love with Luka's stage presence while Mizi is too  overwhelmed with emotion to do anything else but
178. 14:44watch. her clearest memories of Sua coming back to  haunt her. She's then snapped back to the present,
179. 14:49her anger returned, which translates to her  lashing out at Luka. Her goal obviously to
180. 14:54try and beat him to death until eventually she's  practically torn off of him. The crowd all watch
181. 14:59in shock, only leaving the viewer to assume that  something like this has never happened before. But
182. 15:03despite how badly of a beating that Mizi had the  chance to deliver before she got dragged away from
183. 15:07him, Luka looks up at her with a maddening smirk.  We get flashes of the rest of the main character's
184. 15:12reactions like Till. Back to the stage. Many alien  and human guards are escorting Mizi. The only
185. 15:17thing making Luka's smile drop is when he sees a  now fairly new character, Hyuna. With this round
186. 15:22coming to an end, instead of getting the nice  little conclusion that every other round ended
187. 15:26with, we're shown an error screen saying that  this round basically malfunctioned because Mizi
188. 15:31was now missing before it cuts to black. At this  point, our only contestants or main characters
189. 15:37that are currently alive for the next rounds are  Ivan, Till, and Mizi. after being saved by Hyuna,
190. 15:42but technically she no longer counts as a  participant. With the context that we have now,
191. 15:46whoever wins this next round is going to be  facing Luka in the final round of Alien Stage.
192. 15:50And in a fun twist of events, this round is  Ivan versus Till. I'm sure nothing bad will
193. 15:54happen here. Context before we get into this  round, if you couldn't already catch on by now,
194. 15:59you're Ivan is in love with Till and while Till  still loves and appreciates him (No homo)Till
195. 16:04is in love with Mizi, but Mizi is in love with  Sua. And Sua is in love with Mizi or I guess was.
196. 16:11I I don't even know how you would even begin to  describe this love triangle square. I really don't
197. 16:18know. I just spent a long time looking it up and  settled on asymmetrical love quadrangle. I didn't
198. 16:24even know that the word quadrangle [ __ ] existed  until this very moment. Back to this round because
199. 16:30Mizi has seemingly just gone missing. We know  what happened to her, but shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh- Till
200. 16:34just assumes the worst. (Can't blame him  to be honest. If I lived in this world,
201. 16:38I would probably do the same), and concludes  that Mizi is dead, which leaves him starting
202. 16:41this round in an already dampened mood. We start  this round off with Till before we're pelted into
203. 16:46a flashback. This one being more recent than the  ones that were usually given, most of the time
204. 16:51from their childhood. It takes place right after  Mizi's performance with Luka, just moments after
205. 16:56Mizi's assumed disappearance and death. Till  is being forced to sing for a group of aliens.
206. 17:00This may seem like some unimportant karaoke, but  if you take a closer look, the lyrics that are
207. 17:05being shown on the screen are those of the song  that Sua and Mizi sang together in round one. Till
208. 17:09refuses to sing the song because of how obviously  important it is to Mizi and Sua, which leaves the
209. 17:14aliens annoyed. In response to his defiance, the  aliens push his face up against one of the missing
210. 17:19posters for Mizi, hoping that it would be what got  him to sing. But it only had the opposite effect,
211. 17:23causing him to lash out and swing for the alien  in his closest reach. After a bit more singing,
212. 17:27we're brought back to another flashback. This one  from Till's childhood where he's being auctioned
213. 17:32or sold off for adoption. A 50% off sticker to  his right because of the Bruce condition that
214. 17:36he's being sold in. Back to the present. Ivan now  starts to sing as well. As he continues, we get
215. 17:41a flashback to him until the two of them getting  into a fight over him accidentally or not stepping
216. 17:46on- OH MY GOD, ANOTHER ONE. Oh no. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh  no. You see, I'm watching these summary videos
217. 17:57made by another channel (@JOSHINBETWEENER) because  I can't make inferences for my life. And he just
218. 18:02mentioned how Mizi and Sua's flower crowns is  a metaphor for love. Sua is giving Mizi her
219. 18:07love and then Till tries to take it away,  but mismanages it, like his split feelings
220. 18:11for Ivan and Mizi. And then Ivan is crushing it  or stepping on it, representing his resentment
221. 18:16towards Till's feelings for Mizi, wanting to be  able to keep Till's love for himself. OH MY GOD,
222. 18:20THAT MAKES SO MUCH MORE SENSE NOW. Now, I could  go through what each of these flashbacks probably
223. 18:25mean and what's going on in them, but there is far  too much yearning for me to even try and begin to
224. 18:29attempt to find the words to describe it. So,  back to present day. Till and Ivan continue
225. 18:34singing together until Till just doesn't. And Ivan  notices this almost instantly with Ivan obviously
226. 18:41knowing the stakes of this competition. He drops  his mic and- OH MY GOD, IT FINALLY HAPPENED. Uh
227. 18:47oh...? Never mind. I forgot about the whole like  asymmetrical love quadrangle thing..... Yeah, this
228. 18:55isn't reciprocated. Ivan quickly follows up this  loving act by doing something completely in the
229. 19:01opposite nature and starts choking Till. As he's  doing so, he glances behind him at both of their
230. 19:06current scores. And slowly but surely, we see Till  start to surrender to his death. Yeah, the series
231. 19:12ruins NUMBERS for you, too. Don't you just love it  here? His assumption of Mizi being dead as well.
232. 19:16He has nothing to live for after all. But before  Ivan can finish him off, he gets shot in the
233. 19:21neck. It is now in Ivan's death that he can fully  understand what he was doing in the first place.
234. 19:28He knew about what just happened with Mizi and had  the same assumption as Till. Mizi was dead. He now
235. 19:33had the knowledge that if a contestant tried to  disrupt the nature of Alien stage, they would be
236. 19:38killed. He never actually wanted to kill Till. He  just wanted to cause enough of a scene with him
237. 19:43to get himself killed so that Till would have the  chance of continuing on and winning Alien Stage
238. 19:48once and for all. God, can these people ever be  casual about ANYTHING? The round opens with Luka
239. 19:55and Till as they're the final and only contestants  left. The two of them go back and forth between
240. 20:00singing, sharing lyrics that often end up defying  gravity or mirroring each other. Definitely done
241. 20:05intentionally. Before it cuts to the crowd for a  bit, we get a glimpse of Mizi and Hyuna who are
242. 20:10watching the performance from behind the stage.  As the camera focuses more and more on Till, Mizi
243. 20:15watches in horror, feeling Till's emotion, even  through the screen, obviously and understandably
244. 20:19fearing for his life, worried that the same thing  that I'm going to kill myself, bro. I'm going
245. 20:26to kill Worried that the same thing was going to  happen to him that did to Sua in her round. Back
246. 20:30to Till and Luka on stage who are really starting  to amp up this duet with the both of them pulling
247. 20:37going to start pulling out some nails with  the back of the hammer if she doesn't. Shut
248. 20:40the [ __ ] with both of them pulling out an  instrument to add to their alternating vocals.
249. 20:44With Mizi's anxiety getting worse and worse, her  first instinct is to try and go up to the stage.
250. 20:49And despite Hyuna trying to stop her, she makes a  break for it. Speaking of, we get a return back to
251. 20:53the stage for a couple seconds. The demeanor of  Till and Luka drastically changing with the both
252. 20:57of them seeming quite distant from the present,  like they're both starting to run on steam.
253. 21:02Willing to do anything to get up on stage, Mizi  sneaks past a guard using a smoke bomb diversion
254. 21:06to escape from backstage. Things start to move  quicker with the footage cutting back and forth
255. 21:10between Hyuna trying to follow through with a plan  for the resistance and Luka and Till on stage with
256. 21:15Luka starting to pull some of the same tricks  that he did with Mizi, mimicking the mannerisms
257. 21:19of past people in his life (Ivan), to throw him  off and make him lose his focus. What shocks
258. 21:24me is how fast all the rounds go. Because like  technically each time that Luka has done this,
259. 21:29it hasn't even been a full 24 hours since these  people have died right in front of their eyes in
260. 21:34the most brutal way possible. Crazy to me. Till  tries to resist it, but it only ends up having
261. 21:39the opposite effect. His reaction amusing Luka  further until finally we're shown who has won this
262. 21:45round with Luka getting first place which leaves  Till in second with Hyuna still working to unlock
263. 21:50the door that she needs and Till knowing his  fate. He almost completely stops fighting back,
264. 21:54accepting what he knows is about to come. And as  if it wasn't already enough, Luka decides to TWIST
265. 21:59THE KNIFE and surround Till with just pure DESPAIR  and AGONY. (Bro is seriously an x-games level
266. 22:06taunter. Holy). As Till's final lines come to an  end, he spots, who finally made it to the crowd.
267. 22:11Mizi at this point is practically begging for Till  to do anything. She doesn't want him to have the
268. 22:16same fate as the other cast members, losing their  lives before they even had a chance to live it. In
269. 22:21an attempt to be able to connect with each other  one last time, Till and Mizi both reach for each
270. 22:26other mere seconds away from touching before  Till is shot and Luka is declared the winner.
271. 22:33Right after this, a flashback. Jesus, not even  any [ __ ] time to recover from that. As usual,
272. 22:39it's from their childhood. Mizi and  Till are both holding their breaths,
273. 22:42hiding from a sort of guard bot. The moment  continues with Till obviously flustered by
274. 22:46Mizi's presence as Mizi giggles childishly. In the  background, notes from a xylophone can be heard,
275. 22:52representing Till's fading breath as we flash back  to the present, transitioning from Mizi smiling to
276. 22:57her now tear stained face. The camera then pans  to Luka, who's now being forced to face Hyuna.
277. 23:05[ __ ] man. Oh my god. Why does this series just  want you to hate yourself? We start wiege right
278. 23:11where Final left off with Luka and Hyuna. with  Luka obviously excited to see her and trying to
279. 23:16get her attention, but Hyuna not seeming to give  him a second thought right before a gun is raised
280. 23:20to his head. And this episode's song starts.  The first scene of flashbacks that we get is
281. 23:25of Luka covered in his own blood, surrounded by  seed-shaped pods of himself, most of them being
282. 23:30bloody as well, dead and lying limp on the floor.  Luka's left arm remains floating above a switch.
283. 23:35What we can only assume is the switch that he  pulled in an attempt to release these clones
284. 23:39of himself. Now we start to see some of Hyuna and  Luka's backstory or history with Luka in the same
285. 23:45field of anakt garden. He's sitting by himself  fidgeting mindlessly until he's approached by
286. 23:50Hyuna. And we also get a flashback of Hyuna's  brother, Hyun woo. Before this scene continues,
287. 23:54however, it flashes back to Hyuna's specific  lore and an explanation of how she lost her leg,
288. 23:59the reason why she is now an ampute. We flash  back and forth between different moments with
289. 24:03Hyuna with a quick flash of her brother with blood  dripping down his face before we return back to
290. 24:08recent memories with her and Mizi arguing after  the events of round five. Pivoting back to Luka,
291. 24:14we now start to get more insight on his feelings  towards Hyuna with a scene of him in his room
292. 24:18staring at a wanted poster for her with the camera  panning out to reveal many, many more that he
293. 24:23had collected for himself. We then get a brief  flashback for We then get a brief We then get
294. 24:29a brief Oh my god. We then get a brief flashback.  We then get a brief flashback for the We then get
295. 24:35a We then get a brief flashback further in the  past before all of the events of Alien Stage with
296. 24:42the main cast working to create their outfits for  their performances. Further back now, we continue
297. 24:47to follow Hyuna and Luka with Hyuna with her back  to Luka crying. Luka obviously trying to figure
298. 24:53out what was wrong. We get a flash of a child's  drawing of Hyuna, Luka, and Hyun woo. It quickly
299. 24:58it quickly it my god it quickly cutting to get  it quickly cutting to get a clip. I mean rapping
300. 25:06bro. It quickly cutting to a clip of Hyuna and her  brother laughing before being shown clips from the
301. 25:12past again. Kids from Alien stage in the main  cast hanging out with the other kids together.
302. 25:16Now because the series just loves to give you hope  before SNATCHING it away for a good few seconds.
303. 25:22Things start to look up in these flashbacks.  Though Mizi is still grieving Sua's death,
304. 25:26Hyuna is seen obviously happy in Hyuna and  Luka are seen laughing together. Mizi, Sua,
305. 25:32Till, Ivan, even Luka and Hyuna, they're all grown  up. Happy, thriving, living their lives together,
306. 25:38pursuing hobbies like the series is taunting  what could have been if Alien Stage had never
307. 25:43happened. Snap back to reality. Slowly, the cracks  start showing through the flashbacks with another
308. 25:48continuation of Luka and Hyuna's connection  with each other with a short frame of Hyun woo
309. 25:53punching who we can only assume is Luka. Back to  the present, Luka still has a gun to his temple.
310. 25:58He continues to try and reach out to get Hyuna's  attention with Mizi still actively mourning the
311. 26:03loss of yet another one of her friends. And  because the knife hasn't been twisted enough,
312. 26:07we have ANOTHER parallel!!! A parallel counter  should really be started for this series. Jesus
313. 26:12Christ. of Luka attempting to walk towards Hyuna,  flashing back to the past again with Hyuna and her
314. 26:17brother, him lying dead while he tries to reach  Hyuna. The same thing applying in the present with
315. 26:21Till lying dead behind him. Him trying to reach  Hyuna again. Luka obviously no longer thinking
316. 26:27rationally because WE'RE IN ALIEN STAGE, YOU CAN'T  TAKE LAST SECOND DECISIONS LIKE THAT- Anyways,
317. 26:32decides to take the run towards Hyuna, the person  who had the gun to his head, deciding to shoot.
318. 26:38Hyuna, knowing that this would happen, pushes Luka  out of her way to take the bullet for him. Then we
319. 26:46cut back to the past. Hyuna and the rebellion  watching the death of one of its members. We
320. 26:50continue to get more of Hyuna, seeing her right  after she had to get her leg amputated. And mere
321. 26:55seconds after watching her brother die at Luka's  hand. AND ANOTHER- I need a synonym for parallel
322. 26:59at this point. I feel like I'm repeating myself  way too much. It cuts back to one of the first
323. 27:04flashback scenes that we had. The first time that  Hyuna approached Luka in syncs with the current
324. 27:08circumstances, this first hug mirroring their  last. This scene is almost directly followed
325. 27:13up by Hyuna's gut-wrenching final words before  we pan back to Mizi, utterly traumatized. This
326. 27:19series ends basically the same way it started, a  duet between Mizi and Sua with us picking up right
327. 27:25where we left off in wiege. We're joining Mizi and  Luka again. But it doesn't take long for Mizi to
328. 27:30snap out of her tears and instead direct all of  her emotions towards Luka, pinning him down and
329. 27:35punching him over and over and over again. While  the crowd of aliens watches in cheers. After a
330. 27:41while of this, she picks up Luka by his hair and  says, "Stop pretending to be righteous. Neither
331. 27:47you nor I deserve to be saved." Referring to the  fact that everyone who they had to watch to die
332. 27:52died for someone or something. Sua for Mizi. Ivan  for Till and now Hyuna for Luka. Considering the
333. 27:59comic that came out before Karma, Mizi is thinking  that she's the monster. She's the reason that all
334. 28:03of this happened in the first place. So that's why  she thinks that she doesn't deserve to be saved,
335. 28:08which is why she's projecting this onto Luka. She  doesn't know much about him. All she knows him as
336. 28:12is the person that got the people that she loved  killed, which is why she's so angry about the fact
337. 28:17that he's crying because she doesn't think that he  deserves to when she's the one in pain right now
338. 28:22after watching everyone that she loved die. After  Mizi's finished, she gets up and walks away with
339. 28:27Hyuna's brother replacing where she sat. Perhaps  a symbolism for the fact that because of Mizi's
340. 28:32words, Luka is now being forced to confront the  one thing that brings him guilt since she kind
341. 28:37of snapped him out of him feeling bad for himself  for losing Hyuna. We then follow Mizi as she walks
342. 28:43towards one of the members of the rebellion,  Isaac, and after staring at him for a while,
343. 28:48she's got a gun. I remember when I first watched  this with my best friend, I was half scared that
344. 28:52she was going to shoot herself. Before we can  find out what's going on with that, we get our
345. 28:56first flashback of the episode. Mizi and Sua  arguing before the first round. Since Mizi knew
346. 29:01that Sua was planning to let herself die, we can  only assume that that was what they were arguing
347. 29:06about. Mizi trying to convince Sua that she didn't  have to die for her. As they go back and forth,
348. 29:10Sua puts her hand over Mizi's mouth, silencing  her. And once it cuts back to her, she smiles,
349. 29:16a flower blooming over her face. Back to the  present, Mizi has SHOT Isaac. (What did he
350. 29:21ever do to you, man? 😔) so that she can steal his  laptop, which has the controls for some kind of
351. 29:25rocket. This rocket was set to land a bit further  away. But because Mizi now has access to it, she
352. 29:30changes its course to land right where everyone  is currently, which if followed through correctly,
353. 29:35would kill everyone in the stadium, including  her. We're then thrust into another visual of Mizi
354. 29:40looking much, much younger. Perhaps how she feels  right now internally in such a vulnerable state
355. 29:45with other kids from Alien Stage surrounding  her, bright red veins connecting them. Now,
356. 29:50since this final episode came out recently, there  have been a lot, and I mean a lot, different fan
357. 29:55interpretations of this next sequence, so I'm  not by all means stating any of this as fact.
358. 30:00This is just what I personally think makes  the most sense, with an amalgamation of other
359. 30:04people's interpretations that I also agree with.  First, we're shown three very different visuals,
360. 30:09all having a heart at the center of them in one  way or another, and then some pieces of broken
361. 30:14glass. The two in the center being in the shape of  Ivan and Till, only leaving the viewer to assume
362. 30:18that those heart-shaped visuals have to do with  their character and dynamic. This is the first of
363. 30:22a sequence that was what left most fans theorizing  about on Twitter of Ivan taking out a glass-shaped
364. 30:28heart from his mouth and forcing it practically  down Till's throat, the both of them biting it
365. 30:32and breaking it. But while tears stream down  Ivan's face, Tilla seems completely unbothered,
366. 30:37mostly just frantic about the fact that he's being  pinned down and possibly choked, which fair. The
367. 30:42next visual like this that we get is now one  of Luka and Hyuna. Hyun woo lying dead and limp
368. 30:47around him with Luka being in the same state of  shock that we last saw him in the real life world.
369. 30:52The same heart bursting effect as the last clip  happening again here, but instead we get to see
370. 30:57the aftermath. Luka covered in the black sludge  that splattered when Ivan and Till broke Ivan's
371. 31:02heart. Then three more visuals of what we can only  assume represent Sua and Mizi's relationship. As
372. 31:08the last one shown is Sua upside down as an  angel. Then Mizi and Sua both upside down,
373. 31:13the same heart that we had seen before in each  of the others mouths broken as they let the black
374. 31:18liquid run down both of their faces. The hearts  in the flashback scenes are relevant because of
375. 31:22the way that they placed and when exactly they  break. When we see Mizi's and Sua's glass hearts,
376. 31:27they're both broken, spreading with the black  liquid, signifying that their love was mutual.
377. 31:31But in Ivan and Till's case, Ivan is obviously  being very forceful, confusing Till. But before
378. 31:36Till can comprehend what's going on, Ivan breaks  his heart or love for Till, just like when he
379. 31:41kissed Till in round six. He showed him his love  right before he let himself die. We're then shown
380. 31:46another flashback sequence that left many MiziSua  fans in a worse state of agony and despair than we
381. 31:51already are in most of the time. In a monologue  while these visuals play, Mizi says, "Hyuna,
382. 31:56there's something I needed to confess. She was  secretly rehearsing her death every night, and
383. 32:01I knew, but pretended not to. Maybe I just wasn't  as desperate for her. I know my love was different
384. 32:06from yours, but it was love, too. Who could really  blame me? If you'd seen the look on her face, too,
385. 32:11you wouldn't be able to judge me, either." As this  monologue goes on, the visuals change slightly,
386. 32:15however. We get to see exactly what Mizi means  with Sua watching recordings of past alien stage
387. 32:21participants dying and Sua giving Mizi more lines  in their song. Both things that she did so that
388. 32:26Mizi would have a better chance of living than  her. A lot of visuals begin to flash now. things
389. 32:31ranging from sweet moments between Mizi and  Sua and moments of confusion, high emotion,
390. 32:35and hesitation. With one of the most important  ones being Sua taking a needle to her neck,
391. 32:40preparing to draw blood, and one being of both of  them playing with the flowers that had appeared
392. 32:44previously, now showing the viewer that those  flowers were actually cameras. One of the most
393. 32:50heartbreaking frames from this whole episode by  far to me is this. Mizi on the verge of falling
394. 32:55off a cliff and Sua just barely holding on to  her by her fingertips. her hand slowly slipping,
395. 33:01causing more and more panic in her eyes. The  scene itself, I think, explains the relationship
396. 33:05perfectly and the codependence of it, especially  in a place like Alien Stage, where love is
397. 33:10basically the only thing that you have to make the  world seem not so shitty, especially considering
398. 33:15the fact that they were all brought into Alien  Stage when they were practically infants. We then
399. 33:19cut to the competition brackets that were always  shown at the end of every round covered in those
400. 33:24same flowers before it switches back to Mizi  and Sua in a bathtub together. The both of them
401. 33:28getting their blood drawn. Another scene that I  saw a lot of people talking about and a lot of fan
402. 33:33art of. In the present, we get to see that Mizi's  plan in fact did work and see the effects of it
403. 33:38from her point of view. Hundreds and possibly  thousands of kids falling together surrounded
404. 33:43by flames with kid versions of Ivan, Till Hyuna,  and Hyun woo making an appearance. OH MY GOD,
405. 33:48ANOTHER PARALLEL. I'm going to start contributing  to some statistics after this. After this, we get
406. 33:55another monologue from Mizi. pretty obviously  aimed at Hyuna. You were running away from the
407. 34:00very beginning. Not once did you face your real  feelings. Did clinging to some noble cause or
408. 34:05sense of justice ever really fix anything? But  what came of it? A meaningless death. And even
409. 34:10if we'd been granted freedom, we'd have still  felt alone. Because humans are the root of all
410. 34:15of this pain. We're creatures who can't seem to  love without exploiting. This monologue is what I
411. 34:20think really hammers down growing nihilism, which  while painful and sometimes difficult to watch,
412. 34:26completely makes sense in her circumstances. Back  to the present, we're seeing more of the aftermath
413. 34:31of what Mizi did. Almost everything being burned  down to the ground, INCLUDING LUKA APPERENTLY!
414. 34:36As Mizi sits there waiting for the flames to take  her as well, she's holding Till's lifeless body.
415. 34:41This is something that's really important in my  opinion because it's the first and only time in
416. 34:45the entire series that she's able to physically  mourn the people that she loves. In every other
417. 34:49round that she watches everyone else die, all  she could do was stare in shock. When Ivan,
418. 34:54Sua, and even Till died, she didn't have the  time or space to mourn them. But this time,
419. 34:58she's giving herself that. But as she pulls his  chest against her, she realizes that she can hear
420. 35:04his heartbeat. I think personally that this moment  has changed the Phantom forever because I don't
421. 35:08think that there's any other instance where  I've seen more Blake characters alive tweets
422. 35:13in my life. With this realization, Mizi walks  over to the remaining members of the rebellion,
423. 35:18begging them to help her save Till. All while  Isaac is just still actively bleeding out from
424. 35:23when she like kind of shot him 5 minutes ago.  But before we get an answer to that question,
425. 35:28MORE FLASHBACK TIMEEEEEEE!!! Returning back to our  flashback scene from earlier of Sua practicing for
426. 35:33her death. Many fans theorize that this didn't  actually happen and that we're actually getting a
427. 35:37look inside of Mizi's mind. We're seeing what Mizi  wished she would have done instead of walking away
428. 35:42and acting ignorant. Now we get a small monologue  from Isaac. For humans and for these beasts, too,
429. 35:47innocence was a luxury that they couldn't afford.  In the endless suffering, to love and to be loved,
430. 35:52to hold on to hope for a day that may never come.  After this, another montage of various visuals.
431. 35:58One being of visuals of each of the main cast  blood and then another monologue. Is this a
432. 36:03survival instinct or selflessness? At the center  of it was a woman. A woman now called a witch who
433. 36:09was always searching for love. Can we really blame  her for that? Now we're being shown the results of
434. 36:14the blood being drawn from just a few seconds  ago. Each of the main characters being cloned
435. 36:19into almost identical version of themselves. A  lot of their features being interchanged. Then we
436. 36:24get a time skip. multiple screens with a bunch of  ads, one of them reading the alien stage tragedy,
437. 36:30seventh year tribute, with another one showing  an alien museum that had now been opened. Later,
438. 36:35we see Till on a motorcycle with a scar on his  neck infiltrating a group of kids who are being
439. 36:40guarded by aliens, giving them directions to  an escape route. Because of Till's neck injury,
440. 36:44he is now mean, which is why he's communicating  the escape route through pictures. Many fans also
441. 36:49noted how the only reason that Till knows this  escape route enough to draw a detailed version
442. 36:53of it is probably because he and Ivan were  planning this route when they were younger
443. 36:57to escape Alien Stage. Another fact about Till  is that he loves singing. Since the moment that
444. 37:01he was born, it was one of his favorite  things to do. His own mother said this,
445. 37:05and now he won't ever be able to do that  again because he's permanently mute.
446. 37:19We then move to the inside of the Alien Stage  Museum with artifacts of clothing, jewelry,
447. 37:24and other stuff that the main cast was seen  wearing during multiple rounds and scenes. It
448. 37:28then zooms in on what we now know is called the  replica hall of all of the clone children that
449. 37:32are supposed to represent the main cast. One  of the clones looks out the window to see Till
450. 37:37driving by on his bike, to which he stops for  taking his helmet off and giving her a smile.
451. 38:14[Music]
452. 38:15My clemetis. My clemetis. My clemetis. I'm going  to say my clemetis because if I say my clemetis,
453. 38:26that's going to be embarrassing. My clemetis  sounds like chlamydia- No. That's so bad. Oh
454. 38:33my god. Okay. Cuz I literally like I feel like  I'm saying something I'm not supposed to. Okay.
455. 38:40Okay. Moving on, the very first song that we  get from the series, literally the first video
456. 38:45for the series opens with this song, is a song  called My clemetis, a duet sung by Mizi and Sua.
457. 38:51This being a duet between the two of them. They  are very obviously singing about each other with
458. 38:55lyrics like hope bloom from the abyss and always  by my side. Alien stage representing the black
459. 39:01dark abyss that they're describing, which leaves  each other to represent the hope. The word bloomed
460. 39:05being used in the song makes a lot of sense since  the song itself is named after a flower that is
461. 39:10known to represent beauty. The song continues with  them singing about needing each other everywhere
462. 39:14in life no matter what. With the lyrics even if  I sleep in infinity don't leave my universe. The
463. 39:20song then closes in its matching in visuals. Mizi  singing oh my clemetis hope withered in the abyss.
464. 39:27Oh my clemetis please stay by my side right after  Sua dies in front of her eyes. And because Sweet
465. 39:32Dream was first introduced in the prologue of  Alien Stage, it doesn't actually have a round
466. 39:37attached to it. But that doesn't mean that it's  not just as potent in terms of pure sadness and
467. 39:41despair as the rest of the official songs. The  first lyric that sticks out to me are the words,
468. 39:46"Even this white dress of mine is dyed red," where  Sua references her own white dress turning red
469. 39:51from her blood. This phrase specifically being  right after the opening line. There aren't any
470. 39:56words that I could say anymore now. It has no  meaning. make me think that this song represents
471. 40:00Sua speaking from the afterlife. (Well, obviously  she's dead, but you get what I mean.) Chorus is a
472. 40:06reference to something that is more obvious later  in the series. Sua points out the fact that she's
473. 40:10always known that she was going to die before  Mizi, that she'd been planning to all along. So,
474. 40:14her death isn't really something that she regrets.  With lines like, "It's happening today, and Lord,
475. 40:19please, when this song is over, come and save  me from this, please." The song concludes
476. 40:24with a reference to the last song, My  clemetis, with Sua saying, "My father,
477. 40:28my universe. Take away the small and weak me. My  father, my universe, the edge of a cliff, that's
478. 40:34where I'm standing. A call back to Miz, my God,  my universe." Unknown in brackets till the end
479. 40:40is the song that Till sings in round two of this  series. I could go into every lyric of this song,
480. 40:45but almost every lyric is Till describing his love  for Mizi. Soooooooooooo... MOVING ON! Black Sorrow
481. 40:51is sung by Ivan in the third round. Though the  song is directed towards Till, he's singing it
482. 40:57against an NPC. The song opens with his resentment  towards alien stage. Even if we shake our heads,
483. 41:02it's always the same place. It then moves on to  what the song is obviously about his feelings
484. 41:08towards and how helpless he feels in them. I can't  reach you, so I imagine alone. You who shine,
485. 41:13I stand next to you. In this song, its title and  main lyrics, Black Sorrow, represent the stages
486. 41:18that Ivan's love went through when it comes to  Till. At first, he was greedy for his love. But
487. 41:23as time went on, he started to lose hope with the  thought that there was a chance that Till could
488. 41:26actually like him back, which is why now he feels  not love, but black sorrow. This is our first look
489. 41:32of Luka TRAUMATIZING the main characters of the  series!!!!! Ruler of My Heart is a duet between
490. 41:37both Luka and Mizi in round five. Mizi having  to sing just moments after watching the literal
491. 41:42love of her life die right in front of her eyes.  Apparently, this song is speculated to either be
492. 41:47a song that Luka wrote specifically to sing with  Mizi or a song that he wrote for Hyuna and just
493. 41:52happened to sing with Mizi. So, I don't want to  really make any hard and fast observations on
494. 41:57the song because it's all technically objective.  Some things that I did notice though were some
495. 42:01PARALLEL'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!- I swear to [ __ ]  my savior, beautiful soul lines up with my God,
496. 42:06my universe. The whole second verse could be  dedicated just to Sua, specifically her death.
497. 42:12And of course, the title, Ruler of My Heart, is  probably because of the fact that all of the main
498. 42:17ships in this series are slightly toxic. But even  though some of them are aware of that, they can't
499. 42:22just stop loving each other. They're the rulers of  each other's hearts. All-in is sung by Hyuna and
500. 42:27has its own respective "music video," unlike the  previous songs, which were all linked to specific
501. 42:32grounds. The only way that I can put this song is  that it's very Hyuna. Throughout the whole song,
502. 42:36she sings about partying and letting loose. Saying  how she won't let alien stage stop her from living
503. 42:41her own life however she wants. We only get one  life, so I'm living mine for me. Also talking
504. 42:46about how proud of herself that she is for staying  strong and keeping the rebellion afloat. Every
505. 42:50obstacle in my way, I've crushed them all. Step  all over me, but I'll rise again. Here is sung
506. 42:55in round six by both Till and Ivan as a duet. This  song again being about their love for each other,
507. 43:01or I guess lack thereof. The song opens with Till  singing about Mizi. This is what I meant by lack
508. 43:06thereof, saying, "Allow me to the tips of your  fingers. Allow me to the ends of your feet." It
509. 43:10can be assumed that Till uses allow because he's  aware of Mizi's unreciprocated romantic love. He
510. 43:16uses the word on purpose because he doesn't want  to force her into doing anything with him that
511. 43:20she doesn't want to do. In the next few lines, we  get a contrast into Ivan's feelings for Till with
512. 43:24them being obviously more rough, unrepressed, and  passionate. Dissolve me in your gaze. I don't want
513. 43:29to let you go. Please leave me scars. Please hurt  me so that not a single drop of me remains. Let me
514. 43:34drown in you. The first chorus gives us our first  parallel until these falling stars are buried in
515. 43:40the blur of time, referencing a flashback that  we saw earlier of both of them running through
516. 43:44a field during a meteor shower. The rest of  the song is a lot of repeats and synonyms of
517. 43:49comparisons. Basically, Ivan saying anything but I  love you. This song is accompanied by visuals that
518. 43:54make the lyrics just that more sad. And the round  that the song is sung in ends with Ivan choking
519. 43:59Till out just to hammer the song's theme down EVEN  more!!! again just minutes after watching probably
520. 44:04one of the most important people in his life die.  Tail is up to sing again in a duet with Luka. Now
521. 44:10on my first watch of Alien Stage, this was one of  my favorite songs. I had it on loop every day for
522. 44:15probably a full week, but once my friend made me  aware of the like technical meaning of this song,
523. 44:21I couldn't listen to it the same. Every time  it comes up on my shuffle, I literally have
524. 44:27to contemplate if I have it in me to ruin my  day or not. Because even hearing the first
525. 44:31note of this song honestly makes my heart drop.  Again, throughout the song, Luka is there as the
526. 44:37second singer to mercilessly taunt his victims  with him telling Till to just enjoy the moment
527. 44:42and Till responding with, "Oh, in a blink: gone."  Telling Luka that he cannot physically enjoy the
528. 44:47moment because of the nature of Alien Stage. In a  blink, everything's gone. All of his loved ones,
529. 44:53his childhood friends, the people that knew  him the most and that he knew inside and out.
530. 44:58In a blink, they're all gone. And because we love  twisting the knife in this series, right as Till
531. 45:03is grieving all of his friends throughout this  song, his own life ends at the end of the song
532. 45:08as well. Just a fun little twist to add in there.  wiege is sung by both Luka and Hyuna. The song
533. 45:13getting its own "music video" much like All-in.  The song opens with a Morse code message which
534. 45:18spells out alive before drifting into Hyuna and  Luka's voice. This whole song goes through Luka,
535. 45:23Hyuna, and Hyun Woo's relationship together  as a very dysfunctional trio with lyrics like,
536. 45:29"In somewhere in the moment, the lonely moon will  dream, wings drenched in longing, unfold at last,
537. 45:34and hush my little child, drift into slumber, in  your dreams, you'll run and play in paradise."
538. 45:40Nowhere is a song that doesn't have a video  visual, but is still just as telling as the rest
539. 45:44of the songs. This song, in my opinion, is very  obviously about Till. Beginning with the lyrics,
540. 45:50a history stained from beginning to end. Following  it up with, "This always happens to me." A
541. 45:54repeating lyric that could be circling back to his  helplessness in songs like Black Sorrow and Kira.
542. 45:59The first verse focuses more on Ivan's general  regrets and how he feels like he can't enjoy
543. 46:04anything fully because he knows that it could  all end at any moment. Blink gone is coming back,
544. 46:08guys. I lay down and look at yesterday's dream.  All torn up. Fly far, far away. Never, never come
545. 46:14back to me because it's easier to forget. The pre  chorus delves into Ivan's childhood and how even
546. 46:20surrounded by people, he's always felt more alone  than the rest of the alien stage cats. Literally
547. 46:25and figuratively. Close my eyes in my mind. This  painful wound that keeps getting worse. I become
548. 46:30more and more numb to it. In the dark city lights,  I can't find anyone, anyone, anyone. Okay. Writing
549. 46:37this video essay is ruining a lot of aspects of  Alien Stage for me. Every time I thought of this
550. 46:42song, I thought that the lyrics, "He's smooth,  flexible, quite easy," were directed towards
551. 46:46Till. But I'm just now finding out from a genius  annotation that it's most likely about how Ivan
552. 46:51thinks that the aliens see humans, specifically  him, saying, "That's just the kind of kid he is,
553. 46:57so laugh. Laugh because he can't do anything.  No one cares about someone like him." Take My
554. 47:01Hand is a song sung by Hyuna again, not  having a "music video". as our last song,
555. 47:06Karma, is the last one to have one. Since I've  been going off of Genius annotations to double
556. 47:11check the meanings of these songs because I  don't want to infer something very incorrectly,
557. 47:15my interpretations of this song might be a little  or a lot off. Just from the album cover, we could
558. 47:20assume that this song is either about Luka, Hyun  woo, or both. Since Hyuna is the main voice after
559. 47:26consulting the full translated lyrics though, I  think that this song could only be about Luka,
560. 47:30sort of a follow-up to wiege. Over and over,  Hyuna sings Take My Hand, describing different
561. 47:35ways in which she's willing to comfort Luka.  The lyrics that really sold it for me, though,
562. 47:40were I hate you every day, every night. Don't ever  say you love me. It's creepy. The truth. When you
563. 47:45call my name, it makes me stronger. Meet me at the  end of the world. I feel like it has some sort of
564. 47:50call back to live with love that she left Luka  with in wiege. That's all I could pull from this
565. 47:55song. This song is sung by Sua, again, having no  visuals to go along with it apart from the album
566. 48:01cover. The song being very obviously directed  towards Mizi. The first verse makes a reference
567. 48:05to Sua's death in round one with her talking  about how guilty she still feels about her death.
568. 48:10The lyrics written like she's talking directly to  Mizi. Mine empty mind. Please don't look me in the
569. 48:15eye. And now under that mask of mine, digging into  your skin. You don't want to watch what's inside.
570. 48:20The chorus strengthens the theme of Sua's wish  for death even further. again referencing round
571. 48:26one saying I wanted to be somewhere from iron to  red drench somewhere in between the two with iron
572. 48:32to red drench referencing her dress that became  drenched in blood after she got shot sung by Ivan
573. 48:38the song title itself is already a big hint on  its actual contents it being a combination of the
574. 48:43words paradise and parasite a way of describing  the state that Ivan constantly feels like he lives
575. 48:48in I could go through the rest of the song but  it all just goes through Ivan's feelings towards
576. 48:53Still so we're going to move Okay, I originally  thought this song was about Ivan, but looking
577. 49:01at other sources, people are saying it could  also be about Mizi. And reading other things,
578. 49:06I think it makes more sense for it to be about  Mizi. So, take this as you will. We're moving on
579. 49:11from Ivan's feelings about Till to Till's feelings  about Ivan or Mizi. I have no clue at this point.
580. 49:17This song's title directly translates to My Crazy  Life, which honestly is a valid title considering
581. 49:23the conditions that all of these people grew  up in. I really would like to go through every
582. 49:27lyric of the song because this song is one of my  favorites from the entire official soundtrack of
583. 49:31the series. But literally, each and every lyric  just builds off the other. So, to talk about one,
584. 49:35I'd have to talk about the rest of them. One  thing that I will say about this song, because
585. 49:38I can't talk about this song without mentioning  it, is that directly after the second chorus,
586. 49:43not so faintly in the background, the xylophone  heartbeat from the final round can be heard during
587. 49:47the instrumental break before the beat picks  back up. [Music] [Applause] [Music] I LOVE
588. 50:04that. DEFINITELY didn't traumatize me on the  first listen and DEFINITELY doesn't traumatize
589. 50:09me EVERY time I listen to this!!!!!!! Karma  is the last song that we get of Alien Stage
590. 50:13as of making the script. The album cover of the  song is an illustration of a younger version of
591. 50:18Mizi and Sua holding hands while they float down  into the inferno that we saw Mizi cause in the
592. 50:23"music video" for this song. The intro of this  song enters with the repetition of me together
593. 50:29with you and you with me and we obviously  talking about their love for each other.
594. 50:33Mizi and Sua both take turns singing, basically  repeating the same things in a different font. I
595. 50:38really thought that I'd have more of a climactic  moment with this song since it's the last one
596. 50:42that I'm going to be talking about, but there  really aren't many lyrics to this song. Most
597. 50:46of it is instrumental, though. It is also  one of my favorite songs from the series.
598. 51:06[Music]
599. 51:07The first comic that I'm going to be covering  is Cheer Up, which shocked me to my core when
600. 51:11I first read it because I went back to the first  comic ever posted to read them all in order for
601. 51:16this video. And this was my first impression.  Yeah. So, the symbolic flower is back and it's
602. 51:22carried through the entire comic with it starting  with Ivan and Till huddled around it trying to
603. 51:26revive it by telling it to cheer up. Just a few  panels later, who we can only assume to be Mizi,
604. 51:31asks what they're doing. Her entrance very  obviously scaring Till. But once Ivan asks
605. 51:35Till what a loser is, since that's what she  calls the both of them, he responds, "You idiot.
606. 51:40It means an idiot without friends." To which Ivan  responds, "That's you." Then from that, Ivan gets
607. 51:46very validly punched in the face by Till, who then  runs off to go find Mizi. While Ivan sat there on
608. 51:52the grass feeling his forehead for the damage  that Till caused, he picks the flower back up,
609. 51:57repeating the same, "The cheer up, cheer up,  cheer up" from before. When I first read this,
610. 52:02the message in it was pretty obvious to me, which  is what shocked me even more than I already was.
611. 52:07Ivan, staring at his heart, his love for Till,  and willing himself to cheer up, to not let Till's
612. 52:12defiance towards him get to him, because deep  down, he wanted to keep believing that he still
613. 52:16loved him the way that he loved Till. In the comic  on stage, we get a snippet of backstory between
614. 52:22Hyuna, Luka, and Hyun woo. While in anakt garden,  Luka asks Hyuna if she likes music. And when she
615. 52:27responds yes without a specific reason, Luka  responds saying that he loves music because it's
616. 52:33one of the only moments in Alien Stage where he  feels like he has full control and autonomy. This
617. 52:38specifically explains a lot about what could have  contributed to why Luka did what he did during the
618. 52:42past rounds that we looked at. The way he chose to  tease and manipulate instead of playing along with
619. 52:47the competition. something that none of the other  contestants did and how even when he got literally
620. 52:52beat up for it multiple times, all he did was  smile until the same thing he teased others for
621. 52:57happened to him. He wasn't smirking because he was  genuinely happy to be pushed around. But because
622. 53:02all of this, no matter the cause and effect,  gave him a sense of control over his situation.
623. 53:06If he was being beat up, if someone else in Alien  Stage hated him or loved him or whatever, at least
624. 53:11he had been the one that made that happen. This  beautiful lore drop is instantly interrupted by
625. 53:16Hyun woo finding a giant bug and yelling for  Hyuna to come look at it. We still love him
626. 53:21though. Next up, Ivan blatantly projecting onto  Sua, who literally starts the comic by saying,
627. 53:26"When I see you, I feel relieved." So, it's  not just me who's been this twisted. Then,
628. 53:31here comes the projection. then goes on to say  that Sua should feel guilty for the fact that
629. 53:35she's planning to sacrifice herself for  Izzy and that all she's doing is passing
630. 53:39everything she doesn't like onto another person  and running away without a care in the world. So,
631. 53:45uhmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm… like Ivan, buddy, I see where  you're coming from, but like surely you understand
632. 53:52that it's more nuanced than that, right? Right?  RIGHT?- Nope. He he just keeps going, doesn't
633. 53:58he? It's also to be noted that during this whole  interaction, Sua's collar is shining bright red
634. 54:03while Ivan doesn't have his on. So, it's kind of  hard to tell how exactly he's feeling in this, but
635. 54:08I could only assume that this happened during a  particularly rough patch with Phil since it's been
636. 54:12very obviously shown to us that their relationship  was very unstable. Even though Ivan is brutal and
637. 54:18Sua is very undeserving of taking any of this  type of [ __ ] from anyone, considering things
638. 54:23like Ivan's background and real personality. I  say real here as in not the way he learned how to
639. 54:28act while he was growing up. It does make a lot of  sense. Also, from Ivan's point of view, I can see
640. 54:33the point that he's trying to make. As someone  noted in the replies of this translation, the
641. 54:39reality of the last comic gets even more apparent  in our next one, confession. We get a look inside
642. 54:44of Ivan's mind directly after what he had just  said to Mizi, saying how he wanted to believe that
643. 54:49they were in the same situation, him with Till and  Suo with Mizi. But slowly but surely, he realized
644. 54:54that Mizi's love was reciprocated towards her, but  Tills wasn't towards him. Even though in his eyes,
645. 55:00they were basically the same person in a different  font. He was alone in how he felt right now.
646. 55:05Still, he tries to feel better or comfort himself  by telling Till that at least Till's never going
647. 55:10to care about him like he cares about Till. Like  he's trying to convince himself that this has
648. 55:14been his strategy in Alien Stage all along. Don't  get too close to anyone or don't let anyone get
649. 55:19too close to you. and if and when something bad  happens to them, it won't affect you as much. The
650. 55:24comic ends with probably one of the most repeated  phrases that I've ever seen in this entire fandom.
651. 55:29Thank you for being the victim of my shallow  emotion. That's some [ __ ] that you get tattooed,
652. 55:33man. OH MY GOD- Againnnnnn, more unreciprocated  IvanTill!!!!!!!!! the title of this comic, you
653. 55:39can already tell what this is going to be about. I  hope. Please. Yeah, Till is clearly not into this.
654. 55:48I wonder if anything happened on his birthday.  Nothing really important happens in this comic.
655. 55:51I just thought it was funny because I always saw  people making the point that Tilla is probably
656. 55:55bisexual and I feel like this could be an  allegory for that. Moving on. This comic is
657. 55:59quite traumatizing actually. I was shocked  reading this. This comic starts with Sua's
658. 56:04older sister. I'm going to say Uni, but I I don't  know. I just went to Google Translate and it said
659. 56:10something really weird. So, Uni talking to her  about going to Alien Stage and how she's afraid
660. 56:16that because of her naivety, she's going to go  pop and die. You I don't know. I feel like maybe
661. 56:23you shouldn't say that to a kid that young or just  kids at all because Sua was so young. Obviously,
662. 56:29hearing this, especially from someone like her  sister, affected her. But she goes on to say
663. 56:33that this place isn't hell like her sister  said. It's quite the opposite, actually.
664. 56:37all because of Mizi or the pink-haired girl  that she called her in one of the first panels.
665. 56:42Immediately followed by some DASHING imagery of  Sua's death!- leading more into the fact that she
666. 56:47never minded dying because it meant that she was  dying for Mizi. From the start, she knew that she
667. 56:51would do anything for the pinup girl, which is  why she called her time in Alien State and even
668. 56:56her death heavenly. In this comic, we get more  lore from Till, specifically his mother. Again,
669. 57:02I don't know. I really don't want to confidently  pronounce someone's name wrong, but I I think it's
670. 57:08IO. It's there's probably I don't know. I really  don't know. I'm going to say IO or provider as
671. 57:13the aliens call them. It's not blatantly stated,  but I'm assuming that because of their nicknames,
672. 57:18the providers are meant to provide children for  the aliens. And so, in this case, Till is Io's
673. 57:23creation, which is what she calls him throughout  the whole comic. Even though the comic starts
674. 57:27sweet, it slowly gets darker as IO starts to share  her doubts and worries that started to grow as she
675. 57:32realized that she began to care more for Till. And  once he was old enough to properly communicate,
676. 57:37not only how much he loved singing, but how good  he was at it. She was terrified for him because
677. 57:42she knew everything about Alien Stage. Literally,  she had seen contestants upon contestants die in
678. 57:47Alien Stage firsthand. And she knew that with  Till's talent, he would be next. Even though
679. 57:52she knew this though, she knew that she couldn't  stop it. So all she did was wish the best for him,
680. 57:56hoping that he would remember to chase after the  love that he had given so that one day that love
681. 58:01would be reciprocated. Eventually though, no  matter how much of an attachment both Io and
682. 58:05Till had created to each other, they had to be  separated. She was only a provider after all and
683. 58:10he was only the creation. This comic ends very  bittersweet with the narrator saying how even
684. 58:14though I was never there to see it. The way she  raised him had left a mark on him and allowed him
685. 58:19to live with love. OH, DID MY OWN PARALLEL  THERE. This comic is pretty short compared
686. 58:24to the others and is basically just a reenactment  of the monologue that we get from Hyuna in wiege,
687. 58:29but with a bit more backstory, internal thought,  AND A SAD ASS [ __ ] METAPHOR. HOLY [ __ ] The
688. 58:35last comic that I'm going to be talking about is  The Witch's Decision. Something that I noticed
689. 58:38divided a lot of the fandom, especially with  it coming out after Karma. The majority of
690. 58:43the comic is of a conversation between Mizi  and Hyuna, talking about the main plan that
691. 58:46the rebellion had been working towards to free  everyone who was still trapped in Alien State.
692. 58:51In this conversation, it is very obvious how  opposing Mizi and Hyuna's personalities are,
693. 58:55where their morals stand and how they cope with  certain situations. Hyuna is thinking in terms
694. 59:00of efficiency, trying to get the least amount  of people hurt in the shortest amount of time,
695. 59:04while also being realistic in the fact that  this is alien stage and things will happen
696. 59:08like death and hurt feelings that they cannot  control. That sometimes they couldn't have done
697. 59:13anything to stop it, which is exactly why you have  to learn how to move past them. Even if it hurts,
698. 59:17messy feelings will only slow everything down.  While Mizi, on the other hand, is thinking almost
699. 59:22completely in terms of emotion. She's trying to  understand and take in Hyuna's perspective, but
700. 59:26she just can't not think of the ones that they've  lost, especially when it's so many, and especially
701. 59:31when they were like family to her. She mentions  that she doesn't think that it makes sense that
702. 59:35all of these people she loves had to die in order  for them to live and save everyone else and the
703. 59:40fact that it's downright unfair that she doesn't  get to mourn. Ending the conversation with cursing
704. 59:45the concept of love in its entirety because maybe  if she never grew any attachment to any of these
705. 59:50people, she'd be able to hold the same mentality  that Hyuna has. The comic ends tying everything
706. 59:55together and how the emotions that Mizi so  desperately wants to be able to ignore but
707. 1:00:00can't is exactly what led to the events of karma  which in effect has now led to her being possibly
708. 1:00:06forever outcast as the witch. Because in this  world you will always be punished for being human.
709. 1:00:21Alien Stage truly is probably now one  of my favorite series of all time,
710. 1:00:25especially as a writer. Like, it balances  character and plot and world building so well,
711. 1:00:29and the music just feels like a bonus. I'm  also aware that in terms of the age of content,
712. 1:00:34I guess you would call it, I am fairly new to this  fandom. So, if I ended up getting anything wrong,
713. 1:00:38or honestly, if there's just a piece  of lore that you feel like sharing,
714. 1:00:42I'd love to read them in the comments. And  of course, go support both Vivinos and Qmeng
715. 1:00:46on all their socials. I'll link anything  that I can find of them in the description.